The Daily Rejection

This is probably going to sound weird, but in a way, I think I've almost become accustomed to Rs for my short stories. There's a brief sting, but it doesn't last. Anything but a straight out rejection, even in a positive sense, however, makes my stomach churn. Ugh, I'm such a wimp.

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Hathor, sorry about the unexpected Rs.

krash, good luck with the partial.

DragonShark said:

This is probably going to sound weird, but in a way, I think I've almost become accustomed to Rs for my short stories. There's a brief sting, but it doesn't last. Anything but a straight out rejection, even in a positive sense, however, makes my stomach churn. Ugh, I'm such a wimp.

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Hathor, sorry about the unexpected Rs.

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At least you write short stories. Any ideas I have along that score get too complex and seem like novella possibilities. And we all know how marketable those are.

I'd written off the queries long ago, so there isn't much of a sting. I do wonder why they want to send Rs when so much time has passed. Surely, they must realize that I would have figured it out by now. Right?

I'm more stung by how I was treated at the supermarket. I kept being asked if I needed help finding things, then if I needed assistance with my bags. As to the latter, I was asked three times, said no, then at my car someone came up and started loading my groceries anyway. Did I look particularly old and feeble today?

Hathor, please send those helpful grocery store employees my way.

I could use some help at the supermarket, Hathor. I'm usually the lady with the bags breaking in the parking lot and no one around to help.

I am sicker than sick. Now on antibiotics. Kids are mending too. It's been a bad couple of weeks. Lots of personal drama, but it seems to be slowing down now. Finally.

I got a rejection on a full today, personalized but not helpful. And then a partial request (100 pages) of 2 chapters and a synopsis for another book. I guess that means I broke even?

I wish I had the power to send summon helpers to where help is needed. Alas, they seem scarce then. Like where were these guys when I was on my tippy toes trying to reach items on the top shelf?

Sorry you've been sick, Carleree. Maybe it's nature's way of distracting you from the disappointing hockey playoffs. We need a new coach now, too. Maybe we'll hire Tortorella.

Hathor said:

At least you write short stories. Any ideas I have along that score get too complex and seem like novella possibilities. And we all know how marketable those are.

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The only problem I have with short stories is that it's too easy to use them as an excuse to procrastinate on novels. I keep telling myself the credits will help me when I approach agents, except I really haven't been getting any writing credits by writing shorts. Sigh... I need to get back to working on my MS, I still haven't finished fixing it up after I made a royal mess of it for the Secret Agent contest way back when. Ugh.

Sorry you've been sick, Carleree. That nasty bug sure seems to making it's way around.

Hathor said:

I wish I had the power to send summon helpers to where help is needed. Alas, they seem scarce then. Like where were these guys when I was on my tippy toes trying to reach items on the top shelf?

Sorry you've been sick, Carleree. Maybe it's nature's way of distracting you from the disappointing hockey playoffs. We need a new coach now, too. Maybe we'll hire Tortorella.

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If you want Tortorella, you'd have to be desperate. But hey, if you don't mind your top players getting injured and not scoring for 35 games, then he's the right coach for you. *snicker*

I honestly wouldn't mind being sick, if I didn't have to work. I bought a new mattress and I'm not getting enough time to sleep in it

DragonShark said:

The only problem I have with short stories is that it's too easy to use them as an excuse to procrastinate on novels. I keep telling myself the credits will help me when I approach agents, except I really haven't been getting any writing credits by writing shorts. Sigh... I need to get back to working on my MS, I still haven't finished fixing it up after I made a royal mess of it for the Secret Agent contest way back when. Ugh.

Sorry you've been sick, Carleree. That nasty bug sure seems to making it's way around.

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Aw, thanks.

I wish I could write short stories. Unfortunately I only know how to write novels agents love but won't represent.

Carleree said:

If you want Tortorella, you'd have to be desperate. But hey, if you don't mind your top players getting injured and not scoring for 35 games, then he's the right coach for you. *snicker*

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I was being facetious. He's well-hated around here. I haven't seen him on any lists of possibilities so far. I did like a rant he had about the Penguins and Crosby one time, though. He had them pegged.

I fear our real problem is Ovechkin. He wouldn't listen to Boudreau, so Boudreau was sent packing. And he's now been incredibly successful with the Ducks. But who's going to accept Ovie in trade?

Maybe our problem this year was the fact that the Wizards did well. There was a chart in the paper showing that for decades, with few exceptions, either one team or the other made the playoffs.

Hope you can spend some quality time with your new mattress soon. (Wait, that didn't sound quite right.) I didn't experience ours until my first day out of the hospital. See,I didn't want to sleep upstairs until they finished painting and we know how well that worked...

I do love my remodeling, even if it almost killed me. Now hubs reports that he really was concerned that I was going to die. He didn't say anything at the time.I never feared that. I worried about running out of useful veins. IVs and blood tests kept blowing them. Guess that means I need to do my best to stay healthy

Get well. All of your that have been ailing or hurting need to get well also.

The last hopes I have for this novel are drying up quickly. I still have a full and a couple of partials out, but they've been out a long time and no response to a nudge last month. Not really expecting to hear anything at this point. Still waiting on a few queries from march, but that's it.

This sounds more upsetting than it really is. At this point, I'd rather focus on the next novel than query agents way down on my list. Each one is a learning experience. The one I've been querying is the second novel I've ever written, and this time around, I feel so much more prepared. I joined twitter and AW, entered contests, and improved as a writer. So even if this one ends up in the trunk, it will just be another step of the journey.

Hope everyone has good news today and have a great weekend!

Happy Friday, folks!

Spent yesterday evening revamping my short story spreadsheet[/nerd]


ap123 - Ack, bummer about WoMentoring. Sounded like they had a LOT bigger response than they'd initially anticipated.

krash - WOOOOO! YAY for the partial request!!

HH - I'm holding my breath for you today! Good luck on your phone call!

Antonin - Condolences on the R. And yeah, I twitter-stalked agents, too, and there were at least two that I crossed off my list b/c they just didn't seem like people I'd be comfortable working with based on the tone and content of their tweets.

DragonShark - Totally agree about short story Rs not stinging anymore. Every once in awhile, there'll be one that was short-listed or for an anthology that I thought sounded really cool that'll smart a bit, but for the most part, I just check them off, queue them up to be re-read/revised, and then send them off again. I've gotten enough encouraging personal Rs to know that my work is decent... I think a lot of it comes down to finding the right market at the right time.

Carleree - Feel better soon!

Shandy - Awesome attitude, even if you do end up having to shelve that novel for the time being.


re: short stories
I LOVE short stories -- for me it's like a brain break from the "work" of a novel, where I have more freedom to try new things w/o the pressure of "is this going to screw up six months' worth of work?"

HH - My goodness, good luck!

WendyN - I agree about short stories. They're more relaxing than novels lol

OKAY I have three requests after #JustPichIt twitter pitching event. Still working on the first ten pages, I think it's much better than before, but I should finish the work and have fresh eyes look at it before I send it, because one of the requests actually comes from one of my top agents D: NERVOUS!

Do you guys think I should mention in my query that it's a dual-narrative novel?

Maxtina James ASB said:

Do you guys think I should mention in my query that it's a dual-narrative novel?

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It's been my understanding when this question comes up that you should mention it. I don't know how important it is or isn't to show the two characters in the pitch, but it should at least get a mention elsewhere in the query letter.

Good luck with your requests!

Nerrrvous nervous nervous nervous! Slightly freaking out! I wish there were chill pills because I'd pop a few of those mofos right now.

I did a little internet stalk--er---searching. I like the agent's personality on Twitter, so that's a plus! She is new- she was previously an editor- so as far as the asking for other clients, I am not sure she has any yet (or maybe she does! but they'd be new to her, too)- but I've written down the other questions just in case! EEEEP!

HH - Breathe in, breathe out, repeat. Smile when you're talking on the phone. And don't forget to check the Bewares thread here on AW and the Writer Beware site. I hope it all works out!

Phone call complete!

I like her. A lot. It wasn't a "yes I want to represent you right now!" I don't think... but she appreciates all that I do and how dedicated I am, thought my stuff was really funny (and for a humor writer, that's a check plus), and wanted to know more about me and my goals. Then she told me about everything that she does- and her description was basically just what I'm looking for.
So there's a questionnaire (about platforms and such, important for NF writers/bloggers) that she's sending over, and once that's done, we'll discuss where to go from there.

How does that sound? I'm trying to feel it all out, haha. I left the call with a positive feeling, so that's cause for a little celebration, right?

HH - That's AMAZING! :O I'm so happy for you! ^_^

RaggedEdge - Thanks a lot dear I added it.

HH - That sounds hugely promising. Keep us posted!

Maxtina - You're welcome!

HH -- sounds exciting! Good luck!

So, just a reminder, guys, that it's definitely worth checking your e-mail's spam folder once in a while. I found some (tentative) good news in mine today. Here's hoping the editor doesn't think I'm a complete flake for not answering for 6 days!

That sounds very hopeful to me, Holdin! Yes, celebrate Maybe not champagne yet...how about a margarita?

DragonShark said:

So, just a reminder, guys, that it's definitely worth checking your e-mail's spam folder once in a while. I found some (tentative) good news in mine today. Here's hoping the editor doesn't think I'm a complete flake for not answering for 6 days!

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Cool! Nah, I think six days is okay but you could always explain. A lot of people take some time to respond to requests, anyway. But it reminds me: Spam disappears, at least with gmail. Google gives it 30 days. So we should all definitely get in the habit of checking. Thanks for the reminder!

Great news, HH!

Just checked my spam. Icky, icky, poo.

angeliz2k said:

Well, I don't know for sure, but my impression is that this is a lightly edited form letter. I don't think it expresses a very strong desire to actually see the ms again--it seems the agent feels it needs a lot of work before it's acceptable to him/her. That being said . . . you could always ask whether he/she might look at a revision, though the answer might be no.

I know the feeling of getting feedback from an agent that rings a bell. I already knew at some level that the problem existed, but needed a kick in the butt to actually acknowledge it and fix it. Maybe this is the motivation you need to solve those problems.

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Thanks for the feed back. It's always hard to tell if I read too much into these things. But since this is the first professional read of the ms and only second read at all (first and only by spouse) I think I'm doing pretty damn well.

I am thrilled with my revisions and that I put it together so quickly after the agent's vague suggestions. I hope the editor (former senior editor at Viking Press) can help as well. I'm optimistic I'm on the right path now after not knowing if I even came close to pulling off a retelling never mind a literary novel.

What do you guys think of a 50 % response (rej) to cold queries for a literary novel. I know my mistake is that it's too long so it must have turned agents off from that alone - so now that I am cutting it down I hope to up that response ratio. I just don't know what to expect. With snail mail - back in the dinosaur age - I would receive 90 % reply to queries. Of course, what the hell does any of us really know about such statistics?

Another day, another R. This time from Canada.

*obligatory joke at Canada's expense*

*shakes stick at Windsor since I'm so close to it*

Lately I've warming up more to the idea of taking an old story I stopped querying and putting it somewhere online for free. I'd probably go through some edits first, but where would I post them? Tumblr? A blog? Wattpad?

Re the short story thing: Personally, I really like the idea of a series of books taking place in the same world and various characters making cameos in them. Which I may or may not do in my stuff already

Maxtina James ASB said:

OKAY I have three requests after #JustPichIt twitter pitching event. Still working on the first ten pages, I think it's much better than before, but I should finish the work and have fresh eyes look at it before I send it, because one of the requests actually comes from one of my top agents D: NERVOUS!

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Whoa. Congrats on all that! I saw those posts on Twitter and it all does sound really cool.

HoldinHolden said:

How does that sound? I'm trying to feel it all out, haha. I left the call with a positive feeling, so that's cause for a little celebration, right?

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I feel like it's definitely cause for a nice cocktail.